Harper and Midwest Kind tours, gigs and happenings. Join us on our musical journey around this amazing planet of ours!

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Harper and Midwest Kind January 2014 Blog

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all staying warm this winter here in the USA. Michigan has been freezing!!!. I am soooo looking forward to our upcoming tour to Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee this February. The CD release party for the Harper and Motor City Josh "Bare Bones" show at Trinity House in Livonia, Michigan was fabulous. Michigandas if you haven't experienced Trinity House, you really must check out this former church turned listening room. It is such an intimate musical experience!. Every show I have performed there has been a lot of fun. Josh's wife and kids came along. It was so sweet seeing Josh's cute little daughter dancing to her father's guitar solos. We narrowly missed the deep freeze for our short but fabulous Iowa and Kansas tour. All nice shows with good attendance- at Uncle Bos. The Gas Lamp and The Muddy Waters.

Well it seems I have a problem with the Lodge Hotel in Bettendorf, Iowa. Some of you may remember last March, at this very same Hotel - a large 100 pound bronze statue of a Fisherman fell on my head as I was walking into the hotel. Well this time, my band and I were accosted by a very angry night manager for parking in the 10 minute loading zone. Mind you, we had only just got out of the van when this man started screaming at us. Well you know me, if someone is going to be rude, I will ignore that person. So we all walked into the hotel. So then this gentleman called the cops on us. Of course we moved the van, but we took our sweet time to do it. You know what, two squad cars turned up!!!. What a fuss over nothing!! The angry hotel guy apologized to the policemen for wasting their time.

Last weekend we said good bye to our amazing rhythm section of Derek Johnson and Dave Zwolinski- we had an an amazing year with these guys. Our good friends: Dave & Derek were an absolute pleasure to work with and we wish them all the best . I am happy to announce that Jackson, Michigan native, Greg Sauceda will be joining us on drums. Some of you may recognize Greg as the Drum master for the Piston games. James Norris , a Lansing, Michigan native will be joining us on Bass guitar. James is from the Big Willy band. Plus we have Mike Howe back on lead guitar. Mike played with the band for a few years back in 2009. All are very welcomed recruits for my band "Midwest Kind".